Oakland University women's basketball coach Beckie Francis aims to protect children from sexual abuse WITH VIDEO

In a photo from Oct. 16, 2012, Oakland University women's basketball coach Beckie Francis looks over her team's practice in Rochester, Mich. Francis tells The Associated Press she was sexually assaulted by her dad, who is now deceased, from the age of 4 until she was in the seventh grade. The 47-year-old coach has decided to speak out against the problem in part because of the Jerry Sandusky scandal at Penn State. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

In a photo from Oct. 16, 2012, Oakland University women's basketball coach Beckie Francis looks over her team's practice in Rochester, Mich. Francis tells The Associated Press she was sexually assaulted by her dad, who is now deceased, from the age of 4 until she was in the seventh grade. The 47-year-old coach has decided to speak out against the problem in part because of the Jerry Sandusky scandal at Penn State. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

ROCHESTER -- When Oakland University women's basketball coach Beckie Francis stepped down after leading the Golden Grizzlies to a conference championship and the program's first NCAA tournament berth after the 2001-02 season, her departure left confusion.

After the trials and tribulation of recruiting, scouting, practicing and winning on the court, Francis couldn't enjoy the fruit of her labor because her physical condition was worsening.

Francis, 47, did not publicly address her hiatus until recently, when she revealed health issues had forced her to resign, the internal combustion of decades of repression of the sexual abuse by her father. She took three years off from coaching to cope with the stress, returning to the Oakland sideline for the 2005-06 season. Only in November of this year did she reveal the torment that had followed her from her Germantown, N.Y., upbringing.

"I held all that abuse, anger and betrayal in my stomach," Francis said. "That caused a lot of the problems."

Advertisement

"I cried for three straight years. That's how I knew I needed to coach."

She says now that she was too focused on winning and not taking care of herself.

"I was so nervous and so anxious about what people would think if I lost (a game)," Francis said. "What would people think if they ever really knew? Now, I'm just so healthy and I don't care what people think."

Francis, who today is very outspoken about her faith, found religion during her time away from the game. Upon her return to the sidelines, she again led the Golden Grizzlies to the NCAA tournament.

"How good is God?" she said. "To me, that was the biggest gift."

Now, Francis is focusing her efforts to ensure children in Michigan are as safe as possible from child predators. She said she was terrified before she recently testified in front of the Michigan House Education Committee in favor of Senate Bills 1112-1114, also known as "Erin's Law," named after Erin Merryn, a fellow survivor of child sexual abuse.

"I've been super calm about it leading up to that," Francis said. "I felt like a freshman. I was a rookie to the process. I didn't know any of the protocol.

"That humanized it. I'm not a lobbyist."

The law, which now passed both House and Senate, will allow school boards to adopt a policy they see fit to educate students in kindergarten through fifth grade about sexual abuse with age-appropriate material. Gov. Rick Snyder is reportedly expected to sign the legislation into law.

"It's not sex education," Francis said. "It's about teaching kids how to get away. We know how to get out of a burning building, but not to escape a perpetrator.

"I wish someone would've told me what to do when I was little.

"Four- and five-year-olds don't know what's right and what's wrong. And the perpetrator has the power to say 'don't tell.' "

Erin's Law also has passed in a handful of other states, including Indiana and Illinois, and is pending in many others. Supporters cite a fact that one in four girls and one in seven boys are abused by age 18, and more than 90 percent of the time, the abuse comes at the hands of a family member.

Merryn, 27, spoke before the state Senate last summer. After reading the two biographies Merryn authored, Francis made the decision to get involved. Francis invited Merryn to speak at Oakland University's Awareness Night in October, where Merryn told the audience of her past abuse by the relative of a friend and by her own cousin. She also talked about suffering from an eating disorder and attempting suicide.

"She totally inspired me," Francis said. "Her story is amazing."

Francis' own past abuse steered her career goals, leading her to do everything possible to get out of her hometown.

Francis confided in an assistant coach during her first coaching stint at Stony Brook (N.Y.), which led to her discussing the abuse with her mother for the first time.

"And then, I never did anything," she said. "I don't even think I started therapy then. There's a process. I just came out of my denial and then I wanted to put that away for a while."

It was her team, along with husband and Oakland University president Gary Russi, to whom Francis first disclosed her past victimization.

She shared her secret with her future husband during their courtship, and she said "He was so wonderful." The couple married in 1999 and now lives in Rochester. She also shared her experience with members of her church, Troy's Kensington Community Church, at multiple Easter services two years ago. She credits her faith for giving her strength to speak publicly.

"I'm comfortable in my own skin," Francis said. "Every time I did it, I got stronger. Every service, people lined up to talk to me.

"It was freeing."

The difficulty prohibiting Francis from speaking out about the abuse she suffered came in part from the stigma surrounding survivors of child sexual abuse as "damaged goods," she said. There's also a fear of speaking out against an abuser as well as an false accusations sometimes linked to the accuser, Francis said.

"That's so ridiculous," she said. "When it comes out, I believe it immediately."

Before Erin's Law was sent on its way to Snyder's desk, Francis said she was committed to visit Lansing as many times as necessary to see the legislation through its journey in the state legislature. Thanks to her trips to the state Capitol and those of fellow supporters, another measure to protect children could find its way into schools around the country.